Wait, so they retimed the stoplights to force drivers to drive more slowly & stop more frequently?
Yup. They've done this several times over the last 10 years. The main road through the city used to an 80 zone with the lights timed to allow steady north/south (and south/north of course) flow. Now the speed limit is down to 60 and the lights have been retimed several times to cause traffic to slow. I think it's now "optimum" for traffic interruption as you pretty much stop and sit at every intersection.
Traffic management here is ludicrous. The city installed red light cameras and found that we didn't have a red-light running issue. Upset at the lack of ticket revenue they drastically reduced the amber light phase time to create red light runners. If you're new to the city, you'd be surprised at seeing everyone creep up to lights that are still green - because they know if the light changes you need to ABS panic stop to avoid a SERIOUS ticket - they start at something over $500.
If you're lucky enough to come to light that's green, that is. And if you do, you better creep through the intersection because our intersections also have "speed on green" cameras. Going 66 in the 60 through the intersection? Big fine in the mail!!
Edmonton is only slightly better. They are just as draconian about speeding. Edmonton writes over 600,000 speeding tickets a year - about 10x more than cities the same same size. All that enforcement and our collision rates are about the same as other places.
![Roll Eyes ::)](https://www.autos.ca/forum/Smileys/CarTalk/rolleyes.gif)